The Concise Oxford English Dictionary

The speaker icon lets us practice our best Brittish accent. "The bobby rode the lift to the flat."

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary converts the printed tome to the iPhone with a few moderate enhancements. The best addition speaks the proper pronunciation of about 1/3 of the entries. And we mean “proper;” the voices have Queen’s English accents that ring melodically at first and can then become stilted to those of us calibrated to Tom Brokaw’s Midwestern drawl.

With 240,000 definitions, the dictionary includes a wide scope of words. We were pleased to find many colloquial and slang terms, including rhyming Cockney and American phrases. Words often include details about their origin, and the layout clearly presents multiple definitions.

We couldn’t skim an alphabetical list to look up words, instead having to type in the first letters, but that worked well for quick lookups. We also liked surfing between entries by tapping new words within definitions. Most lead to new definitions, although words that aren’t their root sometimes don’t lead anywhere, leaving you to translate “involving” into “involve.” At least web browser-like forward- and back-buttons easily hop through previous actions, and a history screen lists other recent words.

While we wanted even more features, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary makes moderate updates in its iPhone transition.

The Concise Oxford English DictionaryCOMPANY: Paragon TechnologieCONTACT:www.penreader.comPRICE: $24.99REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 software update. About 1/3 of the entries include spoken pronunciations. History shows
recent words. Taps within definitions lead to new entries. Forward- and
back-buttons aid navigation Many entries lack spoken pronunciations. Our American ears prefer more
neutral, local readers. Can’t jump between letters when skimming
alphabetically. Can't bookmark words.